1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image forming device, and more particularly to an image forming device which supplies electric power from an auxiliary power supply to a DC load such that power consumption of the image forming device is kept from exceeding the electric power which can be supplied by the power supply line.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, multi-function peripherals have come to have an increasing number of image forming functions including a copying function, a printer function, a facsimile function and others that use the electrophotographic printing process. In connection with this, the multi-function peripherals have a complicated structure, and the maximum electric power consumption of them tends to increase.
In order to reduce the factors of the image forming device and the operator's waiting time, such as a waiting time for the warm-up of the fixing device or a temporary interruption of operation due to a fall of the fixing temperature under print or copy operation, the amount of electric power supplied to the fixing heater tends to increase.
On the other hand, the electric power that can be supplied from the power supply line is usually limited, and this is a significant restriction when the design of the image forming device is determined.